Solacom Solution Provides the First Hosted Multi-county Regional 9-1-1 System in Florida

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Solacom Technologies has deployed a Guardian system to provide hosted services to 4 public safety answering points (PSAPs) in the Florida counties of Gulf, Franklin and Calhoun.

Diagram: typical hosted solution from Solacom

The Guardian system is ideal for consolidation and hosting solutions because PSAPs can share the cost of transitioning to next generation 9-1-1 capability, yet they retain full control of how they prefer to operate their individual agencies

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The hosted system minimizes the amount of equipment required at each PSAP and provides a cost effective path to transition from TDM technology and T1 lines, to the newer Internet Protocol that will form the basis of next generation 9-1-1 services.

The fault tolerant system, installed at a central office in Gulf County, is configured for autonomous operation of the 4 PSAP tenants. Although the PSAPs share the common back room equipment at the central office, each site is unique and able to determine how calls to their agency are routed and handled under normal circumstances and backup scenarios. Management reports, also unique to each PSAP, are hosted at the central office and can be securely accessed by the agencies at any time.

The Solacom controller presently supports 14 Guardian Intelligent Workstations that provide state of the art IP desktops for public safety operators at the PSAPs. Three of the workstations are Guardian Mobile Positions, hardened laptops that are fully IP and allow public safety professionals to work from any location that has a high-speed Internet connection. Designed for disaster recovery and overflow at times of peak call volume, the mobile positions let emergency call takers operate as though they were at their regular PSAP workstation, with all the same features and capabilities.

Advanced, selective call routing over the new regional network is performed by a Solacom ESRP (Emergency Services Routing Proxy) that converts legacy circuit switched lines and devices to digital interfaces that use Session Initiation Protocol for routing over an emergency services IP network (ESInet). The new network, including the Guardian workstations, is designed to migrate to a fully i3 compliant system as the NENA next generation 9-1-1 standards are implemented by the public safety industry.

“The Guardian system is ideal for consolidation and hosting solutions because PSAPs can share the cost of transitioning to next generation 9-1-1 capability, yet they retain full control of how they prefer to operate their individual agencies,” commented Tony Parrott, vice president of sales at Solacom.

About Solacom
Solacom Technologies builds some of the world’s most reliable critical communications systems that integrate Voice, Video and Data to deliver advanced IP-based interoperability solutions for public safety 9-1-1, military command, security and other mission critical applications. With a legacy of innovation in air traffic control and public safety, our engineers have pioneered many industry advances over the past 25 years.